Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1887-02-25
All AVALANCHE.
Graphic Des,ripio1 of Scene in Snit-..
erlanJ.

Graphic DesGrip ion of "A Scene in Hit-..
erland.
A CORE pendent at Intcllakon, Swift
erland, writes; "The avalanche about to
be described, s'artCd Just below the peak
Of the SLIDER horn, II few m;nutts before
midday. At that II Iur the sun was be-
ginning to make his rays felt in the 10 en-
bosom of the Jung,1au. The 81 b rho Il,
you know, is the sAONiCst ornAme. Of
that most bewitchng of mountains 1t is
pyramid III share AMI has a surface like
frost ed silver 1t seems so dead a:d cold
that one does rot sus pcCt its latent CaDac-
ity for motion and sound. Yet, it is I. ON
this statue. que SilCerEOn that soa4e of
the most telible avala lchcs of the Jung
frau are let 10, sc. The pyram;dal angl S
are 50 s. arp that the ice and sn.p are al
| ways about to slide off, and, when tie
a"terLo Un sun shines straight and hot
upon them, the watcher for ~ alanches is
never disappointed. | had been staring
| at The CazZln e Junnf frau through smoke
co.ored gases for some time and waiting
for the show to begin My pc Mt Of obsel-
| vance was on the WenGcln Alp-ilself 10
mean mounta'n-lrom which the peer ess
JungfTau can be seen at the sho3 test
range. The day was Icrfect-tLe Ky
| cloudless and the wiAdS hushed. On the
| little knoll or eXcrcsenCe whe | sat
some hundreds of feet aloe the Hotel
Jungfrau-the only i'm of life were the
| futtering of utieIf;ies and the humm NJ
| of bees. The silence was awful Ear of,
down in the LautelbruEnen valley,
| could see the Staubbach fall sparkling in
| the SunSEi e. tlom my eXa.tcd sta ion
| it's course could be IRA, he'd for To- s.
ianCe Lefole it tEng fsef into III" alb S.
ard kept horse-lail form coni lctc for
nea ly thou and feet. II looked 50 ma =,
through the transpa ei.t a r, that some
times fanc.ed could hear its roar. But
| this was an ilu ijr. The only Iound that
brt aks the ,t.lll.t SIS CT that solitary he's lit
is that o. the a alal.tLe for Viii ii wa,
20 Iat emily waiting.
Suddenly there was 6 cam as Of par
ticleS III mo iOI on Il Tai1 Of he Slb lhCIn
~ which had often lIoked with keen en-
| peCtayiol S. For jyst h lie coUlI he DIS
cerred, without Il glas., .er cs, cf long
| para!ltl scIa che such rs ava!a CT e5 al
! ways make. Thee are The sroNes in
which, like may human in, titu ions, they
may be sa d to run from year o year by
force of habit. Toe rate of TIE motion
was so SOW and il detern.i atc--Sor rea-
/
one might, for moment, question if the
shining atoms were rot statlOuary at Ell
all. But ro though the pace see rcd 10
be that Of snail, it was zeal II down
ward, ard was soon to- acc lera, ed to be
mistaken. The whole b eaith of ole side
of the SilbelhJln WAS moving beyond a
doubt l was witnes: ing the sublime
| spectacle of great az alanthe. More
swiftly it descended and yet it seemed tC
crawl In tn S way it Sid along for a
short distance-aLout 1900 fees as after
ward leaTncd-w hen the mass fell o. CT q
juttil G piece of ice or rock. Then il
looked something HE waterfall. Below
was another steep slope scored with the
burrows of cd avalan he Here thu mo-
ton was more rapid, but still surprisingly
slow. Then and net before | heard q
sound as of thunder. If the sky had no,
been one inspected blue, | should have
| supposed a storm to tie lCr ting some
where among the mountains 1t was the
LoiSe of the avalanche, at that moment
reaching my ears from distance which
was 50 deceptive. Later on, studying Tho
phenomena of avalanches more deliber
ately, / asccrtained that the scene O.
action-appale emily not more than half {
mile off-was often seven miles and nevel
lie than thee. BY noting the avalanche
at the instant of its birth and counting
the SEE onds of time till the first boom re
ported Itself, one can calculate this will
sufficient accuracy.
Its movement was exceedingly swift
What seemed to star, a5 s. ow was, in fact
d great ice cake, acres in extent ard pei
haps fifty feet thick. This, strik ng agains
rocks in its coulse, broke into fragments
which were indistinguishahle in the dis
lance. The apparent waterfall was com
posed chiefly of large Jumps of ice. These
were destined to be pulveri4ed in gooC
earnest as they continued their descent
Then | heard sound as of h ssing min
gled with the deeper reverberat. ons.
short distance-more than Thousand
feet probably-was thus traversed wheI
the avalanche entered upon another stage
of is career. 1t tumb ed over another
ridge-this time looking more Ike {
waterfall than before. Hereits volume
was much contracted, and could clearly
see that this fact was due to the depth d
the rock-bound channels through which il
ran. Then it sTrawled quite freely oyer 6
great open space or plateau, where il
rested and formed q perceptible heap
thick at the centre and 1altening Out
gradually toward the edges Judging Of
the dimensions Of this mass by my revised
Standards | should say that it covered
many acres ard was deep enough to bury
an Alpine village Ct the average size.
AS the sun sank toward the west ant
the increasll heat loosened the icy CIR
dies Of the Jungfrau, the Monch and tht
Eiger, the avalanches came rafting down
with incrla ing frequency. Between moor
and O'Clock, when left the asciratiul
scene, tho SilbeIhorn had contlibutet
nothing further to tn p lie at its base.